Air pollution: Hyderabad's playgrounds safe no more?

HYDERABAD: Outdoor sports are the best way to stay fit but what if the playgrounds themselves have become toxic due to pollution? This seems to be the case in Hyderabad as heavy metal sediments from air pollution are making the soil toxic in city.  

A recent indication of it are the findings of a study conducted by Osmania University researchers from applied geochemistry department, to find out concentrations of heavy metals in the soils of 11 playgrounds in city.

These include the playgrounds in OU, Parade ground in Secunderabad, Cantonment playground in Bowenpally, Railway Degree College playground in Tarnaka which are visited by many youngsters everyday. Concentrations of toxic heavy metals like Lead and Cadmium in these soil samples were exceeding the safe limits.

While Cadmium concentrations were recorded in the range of 1.4-4.36ppm in the soil samples, concentrations of Lead were in the range of 38-57ppm, against the permissible limits of 0.5ppm and 5ppm respectively.

Heavy metals are often released into the air by various industries and automobile exhaust. Heavy metals cannot stay suspended in the air for long like dust particles and settle down on soil, plants and other components of the landscape.  

Moreover, whenever there are rains, heavy metals accumulated on various surfaces get washed away to open areas like playgrounds, parks and fields along with flowing into lakes and seeping in groundwater.
As a result, across various cities in the world studies are being carried out to find out the concentrations of heavy metals in soils in playgrounds, to get an idea of the dangers children are exposed to.